In relation to the evolving GPRS proposals and standards, it is proposed to provide a first pool of channels called packet-switched (PS) territory used for PS traffic and a second pool of channels called circuit-switched (CS) territory used for CS traffic. To maximize the performance of a network using this arrangement, it is desirable to allow intelligent interaction between these two territories.
One way of achieving this has been to divide the PS territory into dedicated PS capacity (only for PS connections) and PS default capacity (for either PS or CS connections, but for PS as a default). One difficulty with this arrangement has been that CS traffic is given higher priority than PS traffic in the PS default capacity. This meant that a request for downgrading of the PS territory would result in disconnection of PS connections where necessary to satisfy the request. Whilst this was previously considered acceptable in many situations, the rise of streaming PS services requiring a guaranteed throughput has generated a need to allow similar priorities for PS and CS connections.
A further improvement of this arrangement has been to further divide the PS default capacity into a temporary dedicated territory (TDT) and default PS territory. TDT is used for PS and CS connections. The default PS territory is used for PS connections as a default, but can also be used for CS connections. Moreover, CS connections are given higher priority than PS connections within default PS territory, meaning that a PS territory downgrade request is always accepted even though the resources were in use by PS connections allocated in the default PS territory.
When a two-pool model for radio resource allocation is used, and streaming-PS connections have the same allocation/retention priority as CS connections, channels allocated to streaming PS within the TDT cannot be used for CS connections. This means that when a PS territory downgrade is requested and there is at least one streaming-PS connection allocated in the channels susceptible to be downgraded, the request will be rejected. The requested channels do not therefore become CS territory, but are maintained as PS channels. This situation will involve CS blocking, as PS territory downgrades are performed when CS Radio Resource Manager (RRM) needs more channels for new incoming connections.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of improving usage of network resources shared by PS and CS connections.